While AMD likely did gain from the head start, NVIDIA is ready to respond. Not only did the GeForce GTX 680 decimate AMD in single-card performance, but now the GeForce GTX 670 has arrived to go toe-to-toe with the Radeon HD 7950 -- AMD's similar price offering -- and pull into a rough tie with the Radeon HD 7970, a card which commands $80 USD more today. When you throw in NVIDIA's GPU computing (CUDA) lead, it's in an excellent buy.

[Image Source: NVIDIA]

To be clear, an AMD price cut is all but certain. Diamond's card already dropped to $450 USD (still $50 USD more than the GTX 670) on Newegg.com, and PowerCooler trimmed $20 off the MSRP. More cuts will likely follow in days to come.

But NVIDIA has certainly thrown down the gauntlet with its latest launch and will all but surely see strong sales.

The GeForce 670, decloathed. [Image Source: AnandTech]

If there's a weakness to be said for the Kepler lineup it's that the company is still missing a low-to-mid range option, say a $300-$340 USD GeForce GTX 660. There's the ultra-high GeForce GTX 690 -- a dual-GPU card that launched at the end of April, there's the $500 flagship GTX 680, the high-end single die solution, and there's the new GTX 670. But the 28 nm Kepler GK104 does not reach lower than $400 USD -- yet.

NVIDIA does have some other, lower end, GeForce 600 series cards that are shipping to OEMs, built on the general Kepler format -- GK107, GK114, GK116, and GK119. But these aren't mass market cards and they're built on a 40 nm process and thus are bound to not enjoy as great power and temperature performance as their 28 nm kin.

Well, the specs paint a pretty clear picture. The NVIDIA card is an exercise in efffciency -- it grows the transistor count much less than AMD and is quieter. It also holds a substantial lead in power during stressful scenarios like HD gaming. But even comparing to AMD, NVIDIA still arguably earns a win in these metrics. The AMD cards are a tiny bit warmer, but they're decibels louder (and remember, decibels are a logarithmic scale).

III. Conclusions

What's there to say about the GeForce GTX 670? It's a bit tardy, but now that it's here, it brings the heat and is priced to kill. It would be nice to see AMD get very aggressive in pricing to keep a step ahead of NVIDIA, but there are no guarantees.

If you want to dig more into individual game performance (AnandTech labels it as 80-120% of the Radeon HD 7970 in performance in assorted games), overclocking, or SLI, read the following reviews:

Again, the GTX 670 is one mean machine and the perfect item for a gamer with a slightly higher budget, for whom the GTX 680 was a tad to rich for their blood.

NVIDIA earns a hearty congratulations for playing comeback kid and wowing with Kepler. As we said with AMD's head-start, though, much depends on supply. It is crucial that NVIDIA deliver sufficient shipments. Fortunately, NVIDIA typically seems a bit ahead of the supply curve vs. AMD. So expect it to be in good shape, with mid-range to ultra-high end monopolized by GK104 for now.